PBS documentary 'The Adventists' will feature Florida Hospital

Film on WMFE-Channel 24 will look at church's emphasis on healthful lifestyle, cutting-edge medical treatments

April 9, 2010|By Fernando Quintero, Orlando Sentinel

In tonight's Central Florida premiere of the PBS documentary The Adventists, the film begins with the 1863 re-enactment of a woman's divine visions whose prophecies led to the founding of the Seventh-day Adventist Church and its emphasis on a healthful lifestyle.

Three years later, the church opens the Western Health Reform Center in Battle Creek, Mich., incorporating its founding principle of mind-body-spirit.

Cut to Florida Hospital's Celebration Health — one of 37 U.S. hospitals in the Adventist Health System — where, 144 years after the church's first hospital was established, world-renowned Dr. Vipul Patel is shown performing cutting-edge robotic-surgery procedures.

The highly complimentary film explores the intersection of faith and modern medicine, and why studies show Seventh-day Adventists live five to 10 years longer than the average American.

"Traditionally, we've all seen religion and science at odds," said Martin Doblmeier, the film's director. "What you see in the film is a genuine compatibility where science and religion seem to support each other and complement each other. "

Seventh-day Adventists combine a steadfast belief in the Second Coming of Christ with a focus on a vegetarian diet, exercise, rest and abstinence from tobacco and alcohol. The church bases its health message on the Bible, which "reminds us that the body is the temple of the Holy Spirit," said Duane Rollins, treasurer of the Florida Conference of Seventh-day Adventists.

Today, the church owns and operates 168 hospitals and sanitariums worldwide, as well as world-famous Loma Linda University in southern California.

Doblmeier became acquainted with the Adventists and their system of health care when his mother was cared for at Florida Hospital's Altamonte campus. He was later invited to visit Loma Linda, where researchers found that church members lived up to seven years longer than other Californians. Subsequent studies have shown Adventists live up to 10 years longer than the average American.

Loma Linda is best known for its controversial "Baby Fae" operation in 1984, when a young patient received a baboon heart transplant and died 21 days after the operation.

"Since then, they've done more than 500 infant-heart transplants. I learned about all their other cutting-edge procedures, their proton accelerator," Doblmeier said. "What I saw happening was an intersection of conservative faith tradition — few women are ordained ministers; they consider themselves people of the Book — and yet, part of their makeup is this state-of-the-art medical technology coupled with the fact that they are living longer because of their wellness lifestyle seemed very progressive."

Monica Reed, chief executive officer of Celebration Health and featured in The Adventists, helped create a blueprint for Florida Hospital's approach to patient care that incorporates the Seventh-day Adventist principles of good health.

She calls it the CREATION health model, named after the biblical premise that God created heaven and Earth.

Linda Lynch, a chaplain at Florida Hospital who is also featured in the film, is responsible for implementing at least two of the health model's tenets.

"Chaplains receive consult calls throughout the day from patients, family members, a doctor or nurse," Reed said. "But we are also part of the team that makes patient rounds that also includes nurses, pharmacists, technicians and others."

Reed said another aspect of Adventist religion, interpersonal relationships, is incorporated into patient care by encouraging patients in physical therapy to exercise — and pray — together.

"Building community is a component of the Adventist church. Not only can they encourage one another as they heal, studies show patients heal faster when they're in a communal sort of environment," Reed said.

At Celebration Health and Orlando's Florida Hospital, Adventist Health System's flagship facility, Adventists' belief in rest and rejuvenation is expressed in the architecture.

"Disney chose the Adventists in 1996 as its health partner to build a hospital in Celebration that looks more like a spa," said Lars Houmann, president and chief executive officer of Florida Hospital and who also appears in the film. "Our Ginsburg Tower, designed with a major focus on cardiovascular services, overlooks a lake and brings in aspects of nature that promote rest and relaxation."

But it's about being on the cutting edge of medical science that local Adventist hospital officials are most enthusiastic about.

"Our focus on wellness was ahead of its time, but things are different 100-plus years later," said Houmann. "We have a lot more science. And that, like our early holistic approach to medicine, is also our legacy."

Houmann cites the Florida Hospital-Burnham Clinical Research Institute as a recent example of the hospital's commitment to the advancement of science and medicine. The collaboration with the Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute at Lake Nona aims to bridge diabetes and obesity research and treatment.

He says incorporating the latest in science with an approach to wellness is the future of medicine, especially in light of the recent health-care bill.

"Starting reform by including everyone is a good thing, but serving everyone with the current health-care model is a big problem," Houmann said. "It will cost us big if we don't change the way we do health care and prevention. Our healthy legacy as an Adventist hospital gives us an advantage. It gives us the DNA to do that."